The World Won’t End in 2012
Someone is always predicting the end of the world, it seems. The latest popular theory says that the world will end on December 21, 2012, when the Mayan calendar will reach the end of its 5,126 year cycle. That alone is fairly nuts, as USAToday wrote two years ago:
“For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle,” says Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies in Crystal River, Fla. To render Dec. 21, 2012, as a doomsday or moment of cosmic shifting, she says, is “a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in.”
But the theory has gotten even crazier since then, as astronomer Neil DeGrasse Tyson notes in the video clip above. There are tales of an alignment between the Earth, Sun and the galaxy that will end in great catastrophe. There is Nibiru, a.k.a. Planet X, which will supposedly come close enough to Earth to knock the planet off its axis, with resulting calamity. (NASA has a great page debunking Nibiru.) And there’s even more.
I had thought that end-of-the-world predictions and cults were a 20th-century invention until I read recently about some dating to the early 1800s. It doesn’t matter that prediction of the future is impossible in an Einsteinian universe (that would be the one we live in). There will be people crazy enough to make this stuff up and others gullible enough to believe it. Don’t be one of them.
So, when 12/21/12 comes along, don’t despair. Instead, let’s celebrate the end of the Mayan calendar cycle. Who’s bringing the beer?
Digg
Reddit
Stumbleupon
Can we have a poll as to when the world is *really* going to end?
Comment by Edward Cyr — August 25, 2009 @ 1:57 pm
People who are greedy for their wealth are afraid to die. and people who are afraid to die can’t accept anything about the end of the world.
It’s predicted in all religious books you maybe a Muslim it’s in the Qur an, or Bible for Christians etc.
Just prepare for it might be true.
When Noah preached about end of the world people can’t accept and reviled him instead. But happen to them where are they?
Good luck!
Comment by George — August 25, 2009 @ 4:19 pm
There are plenty of 2012 notions to debunk, but there are also possibilities that nobody can predict (yet): supervolcano, magnetic pole shift, coronal mass ejection, and something that the ancients could have predicted (if Halley could, then they could as well), and we might not even see coming – a dark comet.
Comment by Rob Bast — August 25, 2009 @ 8:13 pm
i hope the world doesnt end this is crap i hope they are wrong but look how we treat the earth if it happens we can only blame ourselves we need to try and realize that we need to make a change I HOPE THEY ARE WRONG LETS ALL HOPE THE MAYANS ARE WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by veronica — September 8, 2009 @ 12:37 pm
Veronica, I think you missed the point. The point of the article clearly stated that the Mayans never said the world will end on that date. That’s just when their calendars ended. Therefore, they are neither wrong nor right. They never made any prediction of the sort. That’s just the way the people of the 21st century are interpreting it. I know for an absolute fact that, yes, this world IS going to end one day. That’s just common sense. Nothing lasts forever. But to honestly believe that something like this can be predicted. Come on people? You should realize that the world we live in is extremely complex and full of possibilities. For every predicition there is a defense as to why it’s not true. It’s just too wishy-washy to be completely sure. Instead of spending your whole life trying to figure out when your life will end, why don’t you just live life to the fullest, not think about that crap, and we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. It’s not like there’s anything we can DO if these bunk predictions are true, so get a life. NOBODY KNOWS AND WE’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW!
Comment by Cassie — October 6, 2009 @ 3:15 pm
i just played the game choose youre 2012 and one of the achievments are called the realist and you do nothing to earth to get it and what are the chances of a huge black hole sucking up our galaxy in 2012 the world will end some day but that will be in 500 milion years but we will probably all be dead by that time. i will be laughing my ass of when the clock turns to 12:00 and im still alive so theres nothing to be afraid of.
Comment by blusheep23 — November 7, 2009 @ 2:31 pm